


Station Hopping

by MissTeaVee



Series: Mimicry [1]
Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Murder and intrigue from the Impostor POV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:27:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29193816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTeaVee/pseuds/MissTeaVee
Summary: A sort of prequel to the "Mimicry" series, this story is to show you how MOST Impostors and crews interact. (Hint: Very poorly)Takes place on a smaller SKELD vessel, the Opportunity, that is transporting some specialists from one MIRA space station to HQ, with intent that these specialists will be assigned to new crews... There are Two Impostors aboard, and they don't want to be found.
Series: Mimicry [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2000221
Comments: 87
Kudos: 61





	1. Accidents

**Author's Note:**

> Marmalade(Orange) - Impostor - “M”  
> Cinder (grey) -Impostor “M”  
> Currant (red) (Medic) F  
> Seafoam (pale blue) M (CAPTAIN)  
> Pine (green) F  
> Walnut (brown) M  
> Heather (Purple) F  
> Azure (Blue) F  
> Salmon (Pink) F  
> Tan (medic) M

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This fits into my “Mimicry” verse, and takes place prior to everything else. It’s a fun little standalone to provide some delicious lore, including the structure of the groups of infiltrators living on stations. Enjoy the adventure of Infiltrator (Impostor) Marmalade.
> 
> You will eventually see that I translate the Impostor names for exact colors in their own language as Hex Codes. Just because it’s an easy way to show how many names for colors they have.
> 
> I am continuing to Work on It's Science If You Write It Down, this story just kicked at me aggressively.

When you’re Infiltrating with a partner, you’re supposed to each stick to your own ‘section’ of the ship, unless you both have agreed not to hunt during that date, to lower the risk of one of you coming across someone the other’s killed. If you’re never seen together, if your alibi is one of the enemy who thinks you safe, then if one of the Infiltrators is found out, the other is safe.

The Impostor-known-as-Marmalade knows this. They don’t want to leave the forward section of the ship and travel towards the aft where ‘his’ partner-mentor is working. But Marmalade’s Humana ‘partner’ wants to go check something in Electrical, and he cannot refuse without raising suspicion.

This is bad.

He steps up beside Purple - Well, _Heather,_ but it’s polite to call her Purple, since they don’t know each other that well - _Humanae are strange creatures_ \- and tilts his head expectantly. 

“So, are we going?” He asks, as if not full of internal turmoil.

“Right, sorry, I was just thinking about which way to Electrical is fastest from here,” she says. “I mean, cutting through the cafeteria seems like it’d be quickest, but what if it turns out we need to get some more of the glass spark plugs from comms?”

“Well, we won’t know until we get to electrical,” offers Marmalade cautiously. Purple perks up and he can sense her grinning at him through her visor.

“You’re right, I hate to waste the time, though,” she says, heading for the Cafeteria. Marmalade glanced around Weapons one more time, and then duly followedafter the other. She’s bubbly, kind to him, and has been very helpful in teaching the so-called technician to ins and outs of the ship. He wouldn’t mind working with her more, so he’s glad that this is a short hop between stations, and they'll part ways soon enough. He’s not expected to kill anyone during the five day voyage from the station he’s been blending in at for the last several months to the new one where he will join an outbound crew.

Not that he wouldn’t kill her if he had to, of course he would! These are the aliens invading his homeworld! They’ve killed hatchlings! Just because Heather-Purple is friendly to what she thinks is one of her own doesn’t mean she wouldn’t kill Marmalade if she knew what he really is.

_“Don’t worry, crechemate,” a more experienced Infiltrator had assured them. “Killing them gets easier once you’ve done it or seen it done and realized they don’t smell like us when they bleed. It’s all just meat.”_

It _will_ happen. Just not right now. But not-Marmalade will do his best to live by this advice. He eyes his PDA, then follows after Purple. Most of his tasks are already completed to the best of his abilities, of course. His whole mission is to blend in, arrive at this ‘Headquarters’ station, and join up with a crew bound for his homeworld. Only then is he expected to start killing. He’s already forming a plan, based on observations around _this_ ship.

They cross through the Cafeteria - there’s Currant-Red and the Captain, Seafoam. _Why doesn’t Seafom’s name get reduced to something like Teal,_ Marmalade wonders - Then past Admin, where Marmalade sees Cinder standing at the WIFI terminal and looking at his PDA. Cinder looks up at them.

“Hey, Purple, Orange, what’cha doing?” “Hi Grey,” Chirps Purple.

“Hi Grey,” says Marmalade. “We’re going to Electrical to check on the power routing and the distributor, something’s not working right, and Weapons is getting intermittent power fluctuations.”

“Oh, good luck with that,” Cinder says, turning his attention back to their upload. Marmalade lets out a sigh of relief that his fellow Impostor seems unconcerned by their direction of travel. He turns to follow Purple to Electrical.

* * *

The-Impostor-known-as-Marmalade can’t help but think that this would be a perfect time to get their first real kill in. But… no. Everyone knows that Heather-Purple’s taken him under her wing. If Heather were to die, suspicion would immediately fall on him. So instead he follows her into Electrical, contemplating the many wires within. Mentally, he runs through what he’s been taught when it comes to electrical maintenance, and it’s quite a lot. He is, after all, supposedly a Technician who can do minor electrical work; which he can. It’d be suspicious if he didn’t understand the basic workings of these ships.

Learning an Alien language? Mimicking their forms, their behavioural tics? Easy enough. Understanding their technology well enough to prove you know what you’re doing with it? Much harder.

“Ugh, let’s see…” Purple grumbles, stepping around the generators. “Oh, hey Blue!”

“Azure,” grunts the blue crewmate from where she’s downloading data. Curious, the Impostor steps a little closer, paying attention to the interaction. “There’ll be dozens of blues at the station. So call me something I can actually recognize, Heather.”

Hm, so some Humanae actually find that cultural quirk frustrating too? Interesting. Azure-Blue has been nice to Marmalade, and gave him a kind welcome aboard. He sort of wishes that they could be real friends; but it seems like Azure-Blue and Heather-Purple don’t like each other. Heather-Purple lets out a little scoff and shakes her head.

“Okay, _Azure,_ ” She says disparagingly, turning and stepping around the other woman to check on how much power is being sent where. Marmalade watches intently, glancing down at his PDA to see if the readouts at the computer in weapons change at all. “How’s that, Orange?”

He hesitates a moment, sensing the glare that Azure sends in Purple’s direction. Discomfited by it, he clears his throat. “Ah… I don’t think it made any change to the systems in weapons, but we do need to accept the power transfer before-”

“Let’s look at the distributor,” says Purple, moving over and opening that panel. “Oh look at it go, it’s all out of sync!”

Slightly miffed, - Calibrating that thing should be his job! - The Impostor steps around to watch Purple work. She seemed to have a lot of trouble with the timing needed to get it running, and while he sympathizes in a way, it makes him think of a trick he was taught by another crewmate on the station he’d been hiding at for so long.

_“See, if you use one of your magnets on the side of the panel here, it slows down the distributor enough that it’s easier to calibrate, but you gotta take the magnet off it as soon as you’re done with that capacitor. Slowing the system down throws off the timing and it could cause a serious power fluctuation,overheat critical wiring. An overheated wire is a fire hazard.”_

He contemplates offering one of the neodymium magnets in his kit, used for retrieving dropped tools from tight spots, but decides against. One, it’s not approved MIRA protocol, so suggesting it could throw suspicion; Two, there’s a potential for sabotage in the magnets, so he’d rather pretend not to know of this unauthorized use. He glances at Azure, and thinks to himself idly that her suit is a pretty color, but Marmalade is a very nice color too, if an unwieldy name. At least _Orange_ isn’t too bad, quick and easy to pronounce, it flows through the tongues smoothly. It's one of those Humana words that’s nice to use.

Purple’s quiet curse brings him back to the present, and he swallows down the sigh that wants to escape. She’s alright in small doses, but he doesn’t appreciate her insistence that they have to stick together at all times. She treats him like a naive rookie, not the engineer who's already spent a year on a space station that he’s pretending to be. At least she’s an alibi if the other, more experienced-at-killing Impostor does some wetwork. He glances towards Azure and catches her watching, head slowly tilting over to the side. Is she feeling pity for him? Marmalade doesn’t know, but is not impressed with these two aliens at all. There is no unity here. Then again, it's something to take advantage of if need be.

“Do you want me to try?” He asks Purple quietly. She turns to glance at him, then back to the distributor.

“No, this sonofabitch is testing me and I’m gonna win, damnit,” she growls, slamming her hand against a button. Marmalade jumps, flexing his hands uneasily. There’s a snort from Azure, who seems to be done her download, but enjoying the show. Marmalade rolls his eyes to himself, and sneakily pulls out one of his magnets, tucking it between two fingers and planting his hand on the distributor box. Purple ignores him. “Work you piece of shit!”

The magnet lets out the faintest of clunks on the outer wall of the box, but Purple doesn’t seem to notice as she works. The Impostor continues to play with his little magnet for amusement as Purple works. Finally, _finally,_ she manages to get the damn thing going, and Marmalade lets out a sigh of relief. He steps away from the distributor, heading for the doorway.

He realizes that he’s forgotten his magnet, but it’s on the outside of the distributor box, so it probably won’t matter. If it does, and causes some damage? Oh well. He steps out into the hall, pausing to see Walnut-Brown and Salmon-Pink coming down the hall from the right engine. He nods in greeting, glancing over his shoulder to wait for Purple to come out. Finally, she emerges, wiping off her suit.

“You alright there, Orange?” She asks. “You’re kinda quiet.”

Oh, damnit… uh…okay. “It’s just… I know you’re the senior tech, but I should’ve done the distributor,” he says timidly to Purple. She scoffs rudely, apparently still not over that stupid spat with Azure. Marmalade winces, looking down, causing Purple to sigh and pat him on the shoulder.

“Sure, maybe, but you’re still new, so for the first couple days, I should show you how it all works, amirite?”

“I suppose…” Marmalade glances up, noticing Walnut-Brown watching them. He nods at Brown, and gets a little wave in return. That makes him feel better, and he sighs to himself, deciding that he needs some time to himself so he doesn’t lose himself to his mimicry of their ways. It's a dangerous thing, Infiltrating; his species is incredibly talented at blending in with outsiders, but it can be too easy to fall into their habits and patterns, to forget that they’re the Enemy.

Azure shakes her head, watching as Marmalade flees as soon as he can. Poor thing, stuck with Heather. Maybe Azure could’ve handled that better, but Heather really rubs her the wrong way. She sighs, moving to take a look at the distributor, seeing that it does seem to be running fine. _Well that’s something._ She notices a small object sticking on the outside of the case, and hums, poking at it. _Oh, a magnet. Hah._

Well, Marmalade _had_ been fiddling with the panel cover boredly, he must have forgotten his magnet, s he should return it to him. Although… she doesn’t really want to deal with Heather again… Maybe she’ll just leave it here, Marmalade will come looking for it eventually.

She sticks the magnet on the inner wall of the case, near the uppermost relay where it’ll be easy to notice, before closing the case. Because of this, she doesn’t register that the uppermost relay is slowing in response to the magnet, her mind already on checking one of the circuits under a floor panel.

Sealed in a helmet, she doesn’t detect the smell of melting plastic. An eventual sharp hiss-crackle has her looking up to see smoke. She lets out a panicked yelp, jumping for an extinguisher-

* * *

The systems in Weapons are finally responding like they’re supposed to. Purple’s still hogging all the work, so the Impostor decides to research what neodymium actually is and why it makes magnets. This leads Marmalade into wondering what a substrate is, then what oxidation is. He just keeps clicking on new words; it’s always good to improve his lexicon.

(He also really likes the word ‘lexicon’, it feels interesting to pronounce, and sort of reminds the Impostor of their native language.)

Absently, he wonders what Cinder is up to.

As if in response to his thoughts, a low _thump_ rolls through the floor, and all the lights on the ship fade out, the computer systems blinking to a standstill. One tends to forget how noisy a spaceship is, becoming used to the ambient sounds and tuning them out. The absolute silence is shocking, Marmalade looks around. This… isn’t how a lights sabotage goes… everything’s dead…

The floor lights up with emergency glow strips, and the speakers spit static as emergency backup systems come online, and then the fire alarms go off.

“Oh, lord,” says Purple with feeling, reaching for her O2 regulator, Marmalade following suit. Most of his gear is a mimicry, but there is an O2 tank wrapped in his dorsal tentacles that connects to the orange helmet he’s squished his head into. H e’s glad for it, and hopes Cinder is okay as their helmet is a visor and little else. No time to worry about that now. If there’s a fire on the ship, that is bad and it has to be contained. Marmalade is willing to die for his people if he must, but he’d prefer to live for them instead.

* * *

Electrical is a mess, but luckily, the ship’s own suppression systems and the fire itself cut off oxygen lines to the section. Marmalade is waiting outside Electrical with most of the crew. The Captain has waded into the mess with a couple engineers, the group can just barely hear the voices. The smoke is thick and chemical, enough that even the humanae are coughing from any particle that penetrated got in through their helmet filters It makes it easier for Cinder to cover his lack of a true helmet, at least.

“Red! Tan!” Seafoam calls out hoarsely. “Casualty!”

 _Azure._ The only person on the ship who hadn’t responded to the Emergency. Purple had made a dark comment about hoping she was dead, because it was that or she was one of those ‘filthy monsters’. Her tone had made Marmalade twitch nervously. Now, watching the two doctors hurry into electrical, the headlights on Seafoam’s helmet a beacon to bring them in. He wonders what Purple is thinking now, seeing the body in front of her. He glances across to Cinder, but the other refuses to make eye contact. He returns focus to the doorway. _Whatever happens… don’t be suspicious._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you found this interesting. This story might end up being 3 chapters or up to 5 chapters. I'm still not sure. I have a beginning and end, but I'm still filling out the middle some.


	2. Tension

There is nothing that can be done for Azure; the initial explosion of the distributor had killed her. Her corpse has been ingloriously shoved aside with no thought given to comfort for the dead as the living fight to remain so. Frantic hands are working to restore the ship’s lifeblood safely. Marmalade is joining broken wires, watching as Heather-Purple and Pine-Green try and settle a new distributor into place.

The Ship’s backup generator is turning over weakly, and Seafoam is attacking the wall, ripping out tubing and wires so they can check for anything smoldering away. Marmalade looks back down at the power shunt he’s putting together, shifting his weight uneasily. Did his little forgotten magnet cause all this? Incredible.

The smoke has died down, and now Marmalade can smell the body amongst all the other aromas. Burnt flesh mixed with raw, chemical smoke, burnt rubbers and plastic charred metal. All with a sickening aftertaste of ozone and coolant. At least it was quick for Azure. Marmalade picks up another length of wire to check, and lets out a startled yelp when a crack he didn’t see in the insulation gives way, shocking him painfully with loud popping sound. The noise and his yelp makes everyone look around.

Marmalade makes an embarrassed throat-clearing sound. “Sorry.”

“Go take that injury to the medics,” Seafoam orders. Oh no, no, no, no. Definitely not. That would mean being _discovered_. Marmalade’s mind races, then he shakes his head, coming up with an excuse on the fly.

“I’m alright, it only singed my glove. The spark just scared me,” he says, flexing the aching left hand under his right, adjusting his tentacle-hand that’s folded around his primary to hide the actual burn, and willing some skin to change color and texture to look like burned rubber. He then holds the limb out for the Captain to see.

Seafoam glances at it, then nods and turns back to helping with the heavy-yet-precise work of settling the new distributor in place. Marmalade sighs in relief, and returns to repairing wires, more cautious of charge that might still be in capacitors.

He notices Pine-Green watching him, and glances up at her once. She looks away, her shoulders setting in a way he interprets as angry. Hm… that’s… probably not good.

* * *

“This is looking good,” Marmalade says, checking the last cable over. “No more damaged sections.”

“Let me take a look,” Pine-Green says shortly. Marmalade blinks, but steps back to let her in. Heather-Purple is looking over the new distributor, watching to ensure it’s working right.

“Sure,” He looks around, gaze stopping on Azure’s body. He folds his hands in front of him, letting his shoulders slump and his head bows. He’s a little sad that she is dead, but he does not regret being the cause of it. It had to happen.

_In another life, in another universe, we could have been friends._

In another life, in another universe, these Invaders could have come and made overtures of friendship instead of murdering and stealing children. There is some sadness, but no remorse or regret. He looks towards Seafoam. “What should… we do with her?”

Seafoam’s shoulders slump. The crisis is over, the ship is humming back to life, one system at a time. Now, time can be taken to give respect for the dead. “Go get a body bag from Medbay. I’ll check my files for her will.”

Marmalade nods. “Yessir.”

He turns and departs Electrical, but as he does so, he sees Pine-Green stand from where she was checking his work, glance towards him, then step up close to Seafoam. He hears her starting to talk, but carries on.

“Sir, we need to-”

He passes through Storage, past Admin, and through the Cafeteria towards medbay. Stepping in, he sees Tan sitting on one of the medical bunks, staring at his PDA. Currant-Red is methodically sorting a cabinet, and Marmalade can see her hands trembling. Shock, he supposes.

“Hi,” He says. “Uhm… Seafoam said I should come get a body bag now.”

“Oh… things are running again?” Tan asks. Marmalade nods, breathing in deeply and lifting his shoulders, then dropping them on the exhale. The gesture is dramatic to him, but he has learned to display it as a weary sigh to these Invaders. It is natural body language to them, and he has adapted it.

“Yeah. Green is doing some checks on it all, just to be sure. But everything should be coming on in order of importance.”

“O2 is back up to full capacity,” Currant says, looking at her PDA. “That’s good.”

“Here…” Tan sets aside his PDA and walks over to a cabinet in the back corner of medbay. He opens it, and pulls out a neatly folded object in a neutral blue shade. Marmalade looks at it and then at the cabinet, and contemplates the fact that every ship supposedly has a matching body bag for every crewmate. To go with their base shade, and their suit…

Slightly morbid. Interesting how they place such value on color, when their spectrum of vision is so small. He accepts the bag from Tan, letting out a little sigh. “Thank you.”

“I’ll come with you,” says the medical officer. “I’ll have to give her a brief autopsy, just in case.”

“I’ll come too,” Currant suddenly pipes up, closing her cupboard. Marmalade blinks at her, though she cannot see it. Well… he has no reason to refuse.

Together, the three move through the halls, and Marmalade considers the atmosphere. The ship is quiet. The electronics are up and running, but at reduced power as checks are done to ensure there will not be a repeat of the incident. More than that though… the people onboard are quiet. There is no sudden laugher, no shouting to be heard over a distance, no music playing from someone’s PDA as they walk past you…

The ship is quiet, but it is not silent. It is not still. The floor trembles in it’s comforting way, assuring them all that it is moving, that the ship’s lifeblood has been restored. The Skeld ship _Opportunity_ will continue to nurse and protect her crew as she carries them to their port of call.

Reentering electrical, Marmalade and the medics find Purple helping Pine check over the relays he repaired. He feels his back muscles tighten at the sight, uneasy. He turns to Tan. “Can I help with Azure?”

“We have it handled, but thank you,” Tan answers, stepping over to the body and gently adjusting it. Azure’s helmet had been removed at some point, Marmalade realizes. He looks away, giving the doctors space to work and himself time to think.

“Orange,” Seafoam says. “Could you come take a look at the distributor?”

“Oh, sure,” Marmalade looks over, glancing at Green and Purple, who are still looking over the work he did. He comes to the new distributor, watching the readouts for a long moment, then reaches into the kit he has tied around his waist, and pulls out a small diagnostics scanner, connecting it to the distributor. “Is there something you guys couldn’t figure out? It seems fine…”

“No,” Seafoam answers, head tilted slightly. In the low light, his visor is nearly clear, and Marmalade can see him staring at the Impostor’s hands. Marmalade doesn’t need to check to know that the fake burn is still visible on his ‘glove’ as it should be. “It’s good to cross check work, make sure nothing was missed. Green suggested it.”

“I like that,” Marmalade murmurs thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll ask the captain on my next crew if we can adopt it there too…”

“It’s a good policy,” Seafoam says, shoulders loosening slightly. Marmalade realizes he said the right thing, and belatedly realizes this was a test. That’s… not great. At least he passed? “Why don’t you go track down Cinder and see if he can find you some new gloves in Storage? Best keep things air tight.”

“Yes sir,” he says, glancing to Purple. She’s standing up, staring at her PDA. He walks past her, putting a hand on her shoulder as he goes. She looks up at him, then down again.

He heads out and down the hall towards Storage, typing on his own PDA to Cinder.

_To: GREY From: ORANGE_

_Captain told me to come ask you for new gloves, mine are burnt. Meet in Storage?_

He sends the message and leans up on a crate, letting out a slow exhale, centering himself and considering all that has happened in the last few hours. He has Killed. Not purposely, not directly, but Azure is dead of his actions. He absently works his jaw at the thought, then sighs as the chewing motion reminds him that he’s hungry. Well, his stomach can wait for a while. There will be food at meal time, and if it isn’t enough meat, it will sustain him two more days until they reach the station.

If his next Mission is on a long haul spaceflight, he’ll have to have a strategy to get enough to eat. That’ll mean that the Humana will not only be enemies, but Prey, as well. The idea of eating people, even enemies, makes him uncomfortable. But it will become necessary.

His PDA pings, and he checks it.

_To: ORANGE From: GREY_

_Yes, I’ll be there in a moment._

He lets out a long huff of air. It’ll be good to actually talk to Cinder - _Many-Greys_ \- for a moment. The two Impostors affect a professional politeness as crewmates. If they are neither very close or very antagonistic, then it’s less likely that if one is discovered and airlocked, that the other will be as well.

But it’s so _lonely._ On station, there were enough Infiltrators, and enough space that they could gather in vents sometimes. Interact as themselves, socialize, and share the stress of living hidden amongst dangerous aliens. This is so much more isolating, more difficult. Marmalade prays that he will have a partner if he ends up on a long journey, if only so there is someone that he doesn’t have to fear.

He hears footsteps approach and looks up. Seeing it’s Cinder, he stands. “So… Gloves.”

“Yes, here,” Cinder says brusquely, leading him to a crate in a dark corner of storage where they can see the whole bay. The other Impostor leans in, and speaks quietly in their own language. _“Was that sabotage? Did you do it?”_

Marmalade looks down at the crate the other has opened, pretending to rummage through it. _“I was playing with a magnet while 757ba7 worked on the distributor. I was told - by a Humana - once, that if you put a magnet too close to a distributor, it’ll cause dangerous overheating but… I did not put it close enough to the system. But I forgot it there. All I can think of is that either 757ba7 or 007FFF noticed the magnet and moved it without knowing the danger.”_

Cinder makes a low rumbling noise in the back of his throat, taking Marmalade’s injured hand. Marmalade shifts his flesh back to normal, and unfolds his three-fingered tentacle-hand from his four-fingered true hand so the other can inspect the burn. _“It’s good to know… if you are desperate to kill a crew, and have no hope…”_

 _“If I’d known it would happen, I wouldn’t have done it. I know you are very mindful about how this ship is hunted on,”_ Marmalade apologizes. Cinder gives the smallest of shrugs, reaching into what appears to be a pouch on his thigh, that is actually just a disguised fold of skin, and pulls out a small tube. Humana-made burn ointment. Marmalade lets out a sigh of relief as the other rubs it gently into the injury, soothing it.

 _“It is what it is,”_ Many-Greys answers. Their assumed persona has a near-permanent posting on this personnel/equipment shuttle ship. It constantly travels between stations, with trips from station to station lasting no more than ten days. Any Infiltrators who come aboard are expected to defer to their experience and plans on this ship, not simply do as they please. Such is the hierarchy of their kind; the most experienced and long-lived in a certain place of infiltration has command of the rest there.

Marmalade shifts, glancing out across storage. They can’t linger long, but… _“I’m scared. I think they suspect that I did it, somehow…”_

Cinder lets out a little hiss. _“You need to think now, about how you will defend yourself… you said that 757ba7 was doing your work on the distributor? Did anyone else see that?”_

 _“Only 007FFF, and they’re dead,”_ Marmalade says in defeat. Then, a flash of a memory, the conversation outside electrical. _“No - wait! The brown and the pink overheard the purple telling me why they did all the work and made me stay out of the way!”_

 _“Then appeal to them, if there is a meeting,”_ Cinder advises. _“Show distress that 757ba7 doesn’t speak up about this. If the crew assumes this was an accident, then nothing need happen, but if they consider it sabotage, we might be able to turn this to our advantage.”_

Marmalade considers this, the fact that a second Enemy might get removed from the ship if he plays his cards right, and nods, straightening. When he speaks next, it is in the Humana tongue. _“_ Thank you for the new gloves, Cinder. I appreciate it.”

Cinder nods, giving the slightest bow and touching fingers under his throat. _Good luck._

Marmalade steps out, and heads back into Electrical, finding the Captain and Green there. He looks around, confused as to where the purple crewmate has gone. “I have my gloves now. Do you want tasking to resume as normal?”

“Please, yes,” Seafoam says with a long sigh.

The Impostor and checks his PDA. Some maintenance to do in Engine One. That should include Purple, come to think of it. “Uh… Do you know where Purple went? The most important task on my list is a joint one.”

“She left to go clean her gear,” Pine-Green informs him, her tone cold. Marmalade shifts nervously, glancing to Seafoam uncertainly. The Captain looks at him, and then away. “She got blood on it from Azure.”

Marmalade makes a small noise of understanding. He grips his left arm with his right, PDA hanging at his side. “T-Thanks, I’ll message her about it. I just… want things to go back to normal.”

“Me too-” Seafoam says, bit it’s almost drowned out by Green.

“I bet you do,” she says. Marmalade flinches away from her anxiously. “Maybe I’ll come with you instead.”

“If Purple doesn’t… want to come… I’ll need the help,” Marmalade says, nervous. Before, if someone got snitty, Seafoam would’ve stepped in, said something, but now he seems lost. Marmalade doesn’t like the aggression in his direction, but some detached part of him is fascinated by how these dangerous creatures seem to fall apart when they’ve lost one of their own. His message to Purple is answered, though, and he’s relieved when she says that she’ll meet him there. “She says she’ll be there.”

“Good,” Seafoam says.

Marmalade hesitates, but, he’s noticed most of the Humanae moving about in pairs since the explosion. He shifts his weight, glancing down the hall. “Could… could you both come with me? Going to the engines is different than storage…”

“Yes, of course,” Seafoam says quickly. “Yes. Green?”

Pine-Green inflates slightly, as if about to say something, but then sighs, sounding irritated. “Yeah, sure.”

Marmalade lets out a sigh of relief at that, and they all head out.

* * *

Purple doesn’t look at him as they work. Green and Seafoam decide to hang around and help out as well. Marmalade wants to turn to Purple and ask her why she won’t tell them that she’d been taking all his work.

He knows why, though. The angry way Pine-Green speaks to him, her low words to Seafoam, trying to convince him to kill what she has recognized as an enemy. Heather-Purple fears having that turned on herself. Marmalade would sympathize if it didn’t mean that said risk was being left to him instead.

Still, they finish their work and head for a late dinner. Conversation is non-existent as they walk. Passing Medbay, they see Tan and Currant-Red zipping up that blue body-bag. Finished with the autopsy, Marmalade supposed. He lets out a sad little sniff.

“Are you two going to come to dinner?” Seafoam calls out to the two doctors. They both look up, then turn back to their work.

“In a few minutes,” Tan answers. “We need to finish cleaning up and seal the body bag. We’ll be there soon.”

“Good,” Green says, striding towards the Cafeteria. Marmalade lingers outside medbay. For all that they are also enemies, at least the two doctors aren’t acting in a way that makes him fear for his safety. He’d rather wait for them.

“Are you okay, Orange?” Asks Tan, noticing him. The Impostor gives a little shrug, hunching his shoulder, playing up the uncomfortable body language. He glances towards Green, then back to the doctor.

When she’s out of earshot, he moves closer to the doctor, spinning a half truth, half lie. “Green’s scaring me… It’s like she’s angry at me about something. I don’t understand…”

“I’m sorry,” Tan says gently. “People react differently to stress. What happened has us all shaken.”

“What’s gonna happen to…” Marmalade trails off, turning his head towards the sealed body bag. “Are we going to do the funeral here… or when we get to the station?”

“Ah…” Tan sighs. “I’m not sure. We’ll see what the Captain says. I think ejecting the body towards a star is likely, though.”

Marmalade nods, slumping his body, doing his best to display sadness the way They do. It seems to work, because both Tan and Red slump similarly.

The moment is interrupted by Pine-Green, who sticks her head in with a little growl. “Orange, come on.”

He flinches back from her, and decides to try honesty. “Y-You’re scaring me.”

“Oh, am I?” Green asks, moving closer. “And why would that be, _Marmalade?_ Guilty conscience?”

“I- wha-”

“Get out of my medbay!” Snaps Tan suddenly, putting an arm between them. His visor is turned towards Green. “Words like that have no place! I won’t see another crew of mine turn into murderers because of paranoia!”

“Paranoia, Tan?” snaps Green. “You think that I’m paranoid!? One of our crew is dead and-”

“OUT,” Tan roars. “Get out, now!”

Marmalade scampers, but a hand catches his elbow and he spins, seeing Tan. Green is storming out of medbay, and the Impostor looks back to Tan again, then at Currant-Red who has a hand over her chest. There is an odd feeling to the way he’s being held, it takes a moment to realize that it’s because he’s shaking in Tan’s grasp.

_Don’t change color to blend in. Don’t do it. Don’t-_

Panic attacks for an Impostor are silent things, their breathes shallow, their bodies quivering. Marmalade forces deep breaths, and if they are erratic… well… that’s what a Humana panic attack sounds like. Right?

“Orange, hey, Orange… Marmalade, it’s okay, it’s okay, breathe, hey.”

He looks at Tan, and the realization that the other defended him, this person doesn’t think he’s an Impostor is relieving enough that he can mimic the breathing cadence Tan’s trying to get him to follow.

“There you go… you’re alright, it’s okay,” Tan soothes. Marmalade watches through his visor as Currant-Red leans against the specimen analysis console. Then he lifts his head to look at Tan.

“She… She thinks I- That I-”

“I know. I know… It’s gonna be okay, Orange. I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marmalade's doing alright on the whole "passing as humana" front, to be honest. Pine's an Angry Paranoid.


	3. Aggression

He stays behind Tan as they walk to the Cafeteria. Currant is walking beside Marmalade, and he glances at her once. He should probably feel guilty for manipulating people, but they are the enemy. Besides, he doesn’t want to die, and these two are defending him. He’s glad that he isn’t expected to kill anyone else on this trip; he’d feel bad about harming either doctor at this point.

Not that he wouldn’t get over it, they are still enemies, but still. He heaves a long sigh, moving to grab something to eat, wondering how much meat he can take for lunch without looking suspicious. That’s… really important right now. Is Green watching him? Yep…

He sighs again, and picks out a typical humana portion. Ooh, sweet things. They have an interesting flavor, he’s discovered, but he can’t really eat them without making himself sick. They’re nice to taste though. Hey, it’s normal for a humana to want something sweet when they’re stressed, right?

He takes his plate, intending to sit at one of the private booths where crew can take their helmets off to eat. The meat is barely a mouthful, but it’ll sustain him until the next meal, and he can nibble on the rest for the flavor. He adjusts his grip on the plate, looking around. Green has a plate that she’s set on a table, not eating it, leaning in to talk at the Captain. Seafoam is absently poking at his own meal, and Marmalade thinks he might not actually be listening to Green. He hopes not.

The Impostor heaves a sigh, opening the private booth’s curtain, but the sound of a scraping chair has him pausing and looking around. Cinder has just walked in with Walnut-Brown and Salmon-Pink. Green is standing, her shoulders set with determination. Ah…

“Since we’re all here now,” Green says, her voice commanding attention. Heads turn toward her. Marmalade moves back towards the two doctors for protection. If Green gets the crew whipped up, he wants a fighting chance. “I want to talk about the sabotage we all experienced.”

The word acts light lightning through the group. Every sitting member of the crew sits up, glancing amongst themselves, then back to Green. Marmalade sets his tray down, and glances to see what Heather-Purple is doing. Staring at her lap and uncomfortably rubbing her shoulder, apparently.

“You’re claiming it’s sabotage, there’s no proof that it was,” Tan states angrily. “Don’t dramatize it, it’s brutal enough already.”

Heads swing in their direction, but Green continues as if she didn’t hear the ship’s head doctor. “The distributor exploded, doing serious damage, putting all our lives at risk, and we lost one of our own. Orange was for whatever reason assigned to work on said distributor, despite only being on this ship as transitory crew.”

“Wh- You’re transitory crew too!” Marmalade squawks in protest. Green is a passionate speaker, with a tone and cadence that others seem to lean into. If he survives this, he’ll have to try and adapt those reasonable tones. But first, he has to live. “The only ones who aren’t transitory are the Captain, Tan, Grey and - and Blue… We all have tasks to maintain the ship!”

“Sure, but why did the distributor blow up, huh? That wasn’t a small failure, that was cataclysmic,” Green accuses with a snarl. “Either you’re incompetent or you did it deliberately. So which is it, _Marmalade_?”

“Neither!” Marmalade shouts back, truly indignant at being called incompetent, and letting it show. “I can swear to you that I didn’t break it either by accident or on purpose beca-”

Green spits. “Oh, so someone _else_ sabotaged the distributor within the fifteen minutes from when you last left electrical to when the explosion happened!?”

“It wasn’t a FUCKING sabotage,” Tan spits, letting Marmalade hide behind him. “We’ve shuttled over a hundred different people in the last couple years and Impostors aren’t intelligent enough to do something like that! It’s always a simple wire overload, or popping the lights’ breakers, spinning the dials in comms or blocking up the O2 sensors!”

“Yeah? So the parasites are getting smarter!” Pine snarls back. Marmalade flinches, ducking further behind Tan. Humana… fear and discomfort signals… how should he? He wraps his arms around himself, gripping his own biceps tightly, rippling his flesh to suggest he might be bruising himself with the grip. Do these aliens really think Impostors so stupid? They are among the humanae, in places these Invaders could never guess at.

“Can we- can you- oh my God, Green!” Yelps Salmon-Pink. “It’s like you want to kill someone! Can we at least hear Orange out!?”

“Why? What could he possibly say in his defense?” Green scoffs.

“Are we civilized or not?” Cinder asks irritably. “Captain Coral would always give someone who was accused of being an Impostor a chance to defend themself.”

“Well, Coral was an Impostor, wasn’t she!?” Seafoam suddenly snaps. Marmalade looks at him in disbelief. _Really?_ Won’t say a peep in a crewmate’s defense, but _that_ got him angry!? Incredible. “So of course she would.”

“She was killed by hysteria!” snarls Cinder at the same moment as Tan yells in anger.

“Coral was not an Impostor!” Yowls Tan. “I had given her a mandatory physical exam two days prior! I know she wasn’t! Her body was recovered and autopsied and it was proven that she wasn’t! That transfer crew was full of paranoid idiots and MIRA had them all REMOVED for what went on during that run!”

There was a long moment of silence, Green perhaps shocked out of her aggression, then Seafoam stands, leaned on the table. “Well, I’ll have to read that report. But here and now we have someone else accused. Who is in favor of airlocking crewmate Orange?”

“Wha- can’t I say something!?” Marmalade yelps in shock. Cinder’s comment about the previous captain has only made things harder on Marmalade. He resists looking at the other Impostor for help, instead he clings to Tan, and trembles, letting it show.

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to vote that we kill someone by spacing them, what a horrible way to die!” Exclaimes Currant-Red, looking over at Walnut.

“I’d call fiery explosion pretty bad myself,” Pine-Green growls. “Not to mention the fact that it could have downed all of us.”

“Green,” Tan snarls. “Orange got medical clearance four days ago prior to being sent on this trip. If he was an Impostor, it would’ve been detected.”

“Would’ve it? I’ve had Impostors on a previous mission,” Green says angrily. “They had both been cleared too.”

“It wasn’t me!” Marmalade cries out. “I never even _touched_ the distributor, I-”

“You’re absolutely lying!” Green exclaims. “You’re admitting to slacking off!?”

Marmalade powers on, yelling at her in response, ignoring the way everyone’s staring at him. “No! Purple insisted on doing all my electrical tasks for me so I could ‘learn’ from her! She did the distributor! I walked out when she was done because she and Blue - Azure… they were fighting…”

“Wh- hey!” Purple squawks.

“Are we supposed to believe that?” Cinder asks. Marmalade looks at him, and hopes his glare transmits despite the visor. Yes, the Impostors can’t show familiarity with one another, but is Cinder trying to get Marmalade killed!? But then the other Impostor continues. “Yes Purple and Blue got along like wet cats in a sack, but are you suggesting that-”

“No-wait,” exclaims Walnut-Brown. “He’s telling the truth! Salmon, you remember? We were heading for storage. Orange was waiting outside Electrical, and as we were passing by Purple came out and they were talking, and Orange complained that Purple was doing his work.”

Purple squeaks. “Well, I-”

“I do…” Salmon-Pink says slowly. “She said something like showing him what to do because he’s new…”

“Wait, so,” Cinder says, slowly and deliberately. “So Orange was outside Electrical, and _Purple_ came out after him, and did outright say that _she_ was the one working on the distributor?”

“Yeah, I thought it was weird,” Walnut-Brown comments. “Orange seemed competent when we first met him, and I remember overhearing that that and thinking ‘wow, if you don’t trust him to do the work, then don’t be a coward about it. But Orange was on station for months at his last posting, so why would he not know what to do?’”

“I see,” Cinder’s voice drops, and he turns towards Purple. “Why didn’t you tell anyone this? This completely clears Orange. You realize people were talking about _killing_ him, don’t you?”

“I-I was going to,” Purple stammers. “I never got a chance!”

“You were alone with me and Seafoam for like fifteen minutes!” Green exclaims, glancing at the Captain. “I told you both that I thought it was sabotage and you agreed with me!”

“N-No I didn’t!” Purple protests, voice shrill. “I was trying to decide what to say. You were going on and on about Orange! If I did have the right thing to say you probably would’ve just shoved me out the airlock yourself!”

“I think I will!” Pine-Green snarls, advancing on the other engineer. Marmalade watches with fascination, still clinging to Tan as if afraid. He risks a glance towards Cinder, who meets his gaze and lifts his chin slightly. _Impressive the way he plays the crew_ , Marmalade thinks, _stirring them up, but letting them do the actual accusing._ Marmalade is coming to realize now that Cinder knows the exact right moment to throw a little extra fuel on the fire, without implicating himself in it.

Perhaps Marmalade should do the same. “I… I… Purple…”

Everyone looks at him again. But instead of tensing, they seem saddened. Green goes as so far as to look away from him as if shamed. Marmalade wonders if she is. He continues speaking, making his voice crack as if he’s on the verge of tears. “I thought - Purple I thought we were friends…”

“We are!” Purple gasps out. “I was trying to help, I promise.”

“Then why didn’t you speak up in his defense!?” Currant-Red snarls. “Marmalade’s been having a panic attack in Medbay thinking he’s about to be _murdered,_ and you had the exact information to exonerate him!”

“So what’s your excuse, Purple,” Green adds, straightening like a hunter preparing to launch their harpoon. Her voice is cold and cruel. “You almost had me fooled, but it was you all along, wasn’t it?”

“Green, would you stop trying to kill someone!” Tan yells.

“All my past evidence against Orange still stands,” Green snaps back. “Except now it’s all on her! Plus the fact that she was going to let Orange take the blame! If it wasn’t sabotage, she would’ve spoken up about it!”

“How was I supposed to when you were so hungry for blood!?” Purples cries, her voice shaking.

“Seeing the way you are, Green, I can’t blame her,” Tan starts. “But-”

“Oh? Can’t you? You know Tan, I’m starting to think there’s more than one Impostor on this ship!”

“Oh my GOD,” Yells Currant, trying to be heard over the shouting “Green, if everyone here you’ve accused of being an Impostor actually was one, we’d all be dead right now!”

“Well clearly-”

“Can you all calm down, that is enough!” Seafoam shouts, but he’s too little, too late.

Marmalade, though he’s clinging to Tan as if still afraid, is observing the chaos with interest. Cinder is occasionally trying to interject but being shouted over. The other Impostor walks around the room to talk to Salmon-Pink, who shakes her head at whatever is said to her. Absolute chaos, and all suspicion is now off the true Impostor, so it’s time to cement his position as a crewmate.

_Hmmm…_

He steps away from Tan and collapses into a seat, leaning on the table and making himself tremble. Marmalade hides under his hands, flexing his body so it appears he’s heaving for air. It takes a little bit for him to be noticed amongst the chaos and shouting, but eventually, a hand lands on his shoulder. He startles and looks up and around. Cinder is petting his arm comfortingly. Marmalade wishes he could purr at the other Impostor, but instead he just hunches up as if uncomfortable. Cinder leans over to speak close to Marmalade’s ear.

“ _Very nicely done,_ ” it’s hisses in their own tongue. _“The Purple one may or may not survive this, but that doesn’t matter. You’re safe, but keep playing it up.”_

“ _Won’t be hard,_ ” Marmalade hisses back. Cinder keeps petting his arm, speaking now in the Humana tongue, voice soothing as they keep up the act.

“It’s okay, everything’s okay Orange, you’ll be okay…”

“Can we please have some RATIONAL THINKING around here!?” Tan is shouting, voice hoarse. He isn’t the only one; Green and Purple’s voices are becoming raspy from the effort of yelling. Seafoam tries to regain order now and then, but he clearly lacks the skill.

Marmalade notices someone approaching him and Cinder, but pretends to startle when Walnut puts a hand on his other shoulder. “Nh!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Walnut says, trying to be heard over the shouting. “Are you okay?”

“I- I… I don’t know,” Marmalade says tremulously. “I just…. I trusted her… And she- she… if you hadn’t overheard…”

“Yeah I… I’m glad Salmon and I could help, dude.”

“It’s over now, Marmalade,” Cinder says. Marmalade drops his head on the table and wraps his arms around the helmet, thinking about turning off his helmet receivers so he can tune out these awful loud aliens screaming about killing one another. _How can Cinder stand this!? How does anyone avoid revealing themselves with all this racket!?_

“-Lock her in the airlock right this instant and deal with the problem.”

“NO! You can’t!”

Marmalade looks up at Purple’s scream, realizing belatedly that Green is trying to snatch her arms. Tan is trying to move between them, arms out. Walnut straightens, patting Marmalade’s shoulder and walking over. Marmalade watches, wondering what he’s doing.

Walnut grasps Pine’s arm and pulls her back a pace. “Okay, listen, calm down a minute-”

“CALM DOWN? So we can let this monster get away with murder!?” Pine yowls indignantly.

“No, so we can have a damn vote!” Walnut snaps back. Pine snarls and pushes off his arm, but stalks away, moving to stand beside the Captain, who looks at her.

“No! I’m not- I’m not one of those filthy parasites!” Purple wails. “I swear! Throw me on the scanner, I can prove it!”

“Yes! That-” Tan say. “I can run that scan easily!”

“What good are the scanners?” Seafoam asks himself, during the pause in conversation as even Green seems to contemplate the logic of Purple’s request. The question, heard, makes everyone turn to look at him. Marmalade can see Cinder’s head cocking thoughtfully. Realizing he’s the center of attention, the Captain shrugs uncomfortably. “As it’s been said, we were all medically cleared a few days ago, on other ships, Impostors have appeared despite medical clearance. I don’t think the scanners can detect them…”

“W- you don’t know that!” Tan snarls. “What’s more likely? Top of the line medical tech can’t pick out some kind of so-called parasite from normal Humanae, or that cases of Impostors are inflated by hysteria and panic!?”

Wow, okay. Marmalade’s impressed by Tan because at this point, by all this hysteria and blaming, it’s pretty obvious to him that the comments he’s heard from Impostors who’ve been on ships several times that Humanae are more dangerous to themselves under the right prompting than the Polusian Infiltrators could ever hope to be are very, very true. Tan seems to be the only Humana here refusing to surrender to Green’s angry authority. Though if that was mentioned, Marmalade wonders what Seafoam would do. Currant is hanging out with Tan, but Marmalade wonders how she’d vote if if wasn’t for the other medic.

“You know, I was buying that this was just an accident before,” Walnut says, raising his voice. “But now that we know Purple deliberately mislead two others after it happened…”

“What- I don’t want to die, I didn’t want Orange to die, I was trying to figure out what to say! You all know I was looking out for Orange!”

She gestures desperately to Marmalade, who hunches his shoulders, thinking quickly. It wouldn’t be… in character to vote her off, but at the same time, to refuse to vote or vote to spare her might bring suspicion back to him… Wait, what if he-

His silence must stretch out too long, because Purple entreats him again. “Orange, _Marmalade_. Please!”

“I- I,” he whimpers, pushing up and nearly knocking Cinder over. “I just- I trusted you and- I don’t want- we can’t just-”

He hitches his breathing and wraps his arms around himself.

“Orange,” Seafoam says, his voice a bit too loud. “Purple seems to have framed you for this explosion. What do you think we should do with her?”

“Wh- you can’t ask him that-” Cinder exclaims, hardly the only member of the crew to express disbelief that Seafoam would actually put the onus of what to do on Marmalade.

“Wh- you’re the CAPTAIN! You should- should...” snarls Salmon in disgust, trailing off as if she doesn’t know what to say.

Marmalade takes advantage of the charged energy to audibly heave for air again, stumbling back. “I- no, I can’t… I- I…”

He turns to flee Cafeteria, grateful for the beautiful opportunity given to completely avoid the danger of participating in a group vote to remove Purple. Someone calls out for him, but he keeps moving until he’s found a quiet corner of Storage to curl up in. Whatever happens next isn’t his problem.

He’ll just sit here for a few moments and bask in the peace and quiet before he’s inevitably tracked down…

“Marmalade?” that was fast. _Currant. Hm._ He flinches back, but she crouches down away from his hiding spot.

“R-Red?”

“Yeah, I’m just coming to check on you. Can I come closer?” She asked. Marmalade doesn’t immediately answer, thinking about it, but being sure to keep trembling and breathing hard.

“I- yeah… okay,” he says tremulously, hunching a little. He startles when her hand lands on his shoulder. “Nh!”

“It’s okay… Take a deep breath and hold it, follow my cadence,” she tells him, breathing loudly. He slowly lets himself start mimicking her. She sits in front of him, giving him a couple minutes to breathe. “There you are. Do you want to take your helmet off for more air?”

He shakes his head at that, looking down. Nope, definitely not. Showing his face would ruin all this effort he’s gone into getting suspicion off. Four eyes, no nose, tentacles and teeth and ear flaps do not a Humana make. “I’m… I’m better now.”

“That’s good,” she says. There’s a high pitched cry from the direction of Cafeteria, raised voice, and he turns his head. Currant gives him a little tug. “No, whatever’s happening, you don’t need to be there for it.”

“What about Purple though,” He says, keeping his voice quiet, wrapping his arms around himself. “What if they-”

Currant’s head lifts towards Cafeteria at that, and then she shifts closer, offering a hug. Marmalade accepts the offered hug, leaning into it. Contact is… nice, even though she’s the enemy. He lets out a long sigh, but allows himself to enjoy the friendly touch, no matter how many lies it’s built upon. “I know. But you were just in that position too, you deserve a moment to breathe, okay?”

He sniffs loudly, inadvertently catching a little of Currant’s scent, even through his helmet. Mostly medbay, but also her humana smell. Strong, compared to one of his own, but not wholly unpleasant. Some part of him wants to cuddle closer and purr for mutual comfort, but that would be stupid. So he just sighs, and stays hidden in Currant’s shoulder.

They sit like that for a couple minutes, but a sobbing scream makes them both jump, and Marmalade leans over to stare down the hall, then hides in his arm.

“I- I don’t want them to hurt her,” he says. “But if I voted to keep her… they might decide it was me after all…”

Not quite a lie, and honestly? If he had the choice, if these Aliens were not monsters attacking his home, he could be friends with some. But that isn’t an option, and he wants to live, he wants his offspring to have the chance to grow and live, and maybe even raise their own offspring someday, the way he wants to but never can. Such a life on Polus will be impossible unless the Humanae are stopped.

Currant squeezes his shoulder. “I know, it’s okay, Orange. It’s okay.”

The sobbing cries don’t stop, and they can hear the “No. No- NO!” Echoing down the hall, angry voices-

Marmalade gives a little shudder as Purple’s cries are cut off, as if heavy soundproof doors have suddenly snapped shut, sealing her away from the rest of the ship. That’s probably exactly what just happened. Currant twitches at his side and lets out a little “Oh no…”

She releases Marmalade. “Maybe I can stop them-”

“G-Go…” he says tremulously. Once she’s gone, he silently contemplates what has happened. There’s so much to unpack. Had Heather insisted on doing all the work for him to prove what a good crewmat she was? Or had it simply been narcissism that she was the best? He doesn’t know. It’s incredible how the humanae fear them. Despite how many children they’ve stolen and murdered, despite the many infiltrators on the Humana ships, some of them seem like they could be nice. So why aren’t they?

It baffles the mind, honestly. Such an advanced species, so social. No claws or fangs of their own, not like the Bad Ones, their powers built on society and cooperation, and yet… so violent. They fear Impostors so… Maybe Polusians remind Humanae of some predator of their own!

Hmm, they do call Impostors ‘parasite’ a lot. That must be the creature on their homeworld that Polusians remind them of. He pulls out his PDA, intending to search up the creature, typing away.

_P A R A-_

“There you are.”

He jumps, not having heard the approach. Bit it’s just Cinder, so that’s okay. He looks up to the other Impostor, to Many-Greys, and nods his greeting.

“I just needed to get away.”

Many-Greys steps closer, kneeling beside him and speaks softly in their Polusian tongue. _“They’re all still in Cafeteria fighting. I said I’d come check on you. Are you okay?”_

 _“Oh, good_ ,” Marmalade replies in their own tongue. _“Yes, I’m fine, just thinking about how crazy Humanae are. You really understand how they work.”_

 _“Thank you,”_ Many-Greys sits at their side, and for a moment, the Two Impostors cuddle. It’s a balm, and Marmalade purrs softly, wanting to snuggle in. But if someone walked in on them, they’d think something suspicious was happening, so he stays beside the other, keeping his humana form. “ _All suspicion is off you now, so that’s good.”_

_“They put the purple one out the airlock, didn’t they?”_

_“Yes. Their hiding that they were working on the distributor instead of you convinced everyone of their guilt. Tan and I voted to spare her and keep her captive, but the rest wanted her dead.”_

_“We could hear her screaming,_ ” Marmalade shakes their head. “ _What vicious, violent creatures. There are kinder ways to kill if you must.”_

_“I agree. But, better them than us.”_

_“Oh yes.”_

They sit a while longer, until footsteps start heading their way. Then Cinder is pulling Marmalade to his feet, speaking soothing humana words, assuring him that it’s all over now, he’s safe. Seafoam, when he finds the Orange ‘crewmate,’ apologizes for harsh words, telling Marmalade to take the rest of the day off and recover. Luckily, nodding silently seems to be the correct response.

Marmalade plays along until he gets to his room. There, he lets out a sigh of relief and sits on his bunk. Was there something he was doing before? Oh year, he was searching a word… what was it?

He checks his PDA to see that it auto-completed his search.

_**Paragon** \- A model of excellence or perfection_

Well that’s… not what he was searching... He thinks. But he’s mentally tired from the stress of the day, and can’t be bothered wracking his mind for the right word, so he plugs the PDA in to charge, sets the bits of kit he has aside, kicks off his boots, and curls under the blankets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well! Were you expecting Heather to get airlocked?


End file.
